A Hungarian friend had a couple bottles of slivovitz out when I was at his house recently. Both claimed to be aged for three years. One had a little bit of color, the other was perfectly clear. Is it possible they age it, then filter out the color? Any other explanation?

Sorry, wrong place, as it's a brandy, not a whiskey.

Jono

05-16-2008, 12:59

What little I have had tasted terrible.....

mier

05-16-2008, 13:18

I have had some Yugoslavian brandy years ago it was a bit pale yellow-ish,it was matured but i can`t remember how old it was.It is the national drink of many Balkancountries but i never knew Hungary had it as they have their Palinka`s mainly from cherry or apricot.If you have a good slivovitz the prunes are picked from trees that are at least 20 years old.The plums are not sqeezed but brused together with some of the stones gives it a bit bitter taste.In commercial plants fermentation takes place in glasscontainers while the smaller companies and farmers do it traditionally,fermentation and maturation in oakbarrels.The less stones in the "mash"the smoother the taste.A matured slivivitz can be darkyellow/gold from colour and is matured for minimal 3 years on oak barrels.The commercial plants add the skin of the prunetree(sorry here my English fails)to make it smell more matured.It must be matured for 3 years minimal to call it slivovitz.The law is not diffrent for big companies or the small farmmade slivovitz although i expect the EC will find out a law for it soon.
Eric.

callmeox

05-16-2008, 15:00

There's a good Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slivovitz) article about the spirit.

I've had the Navip Slivovitz most often and it always been a straw colored liquid. Perhaps the other expression that you had is one of the other types that are described in the Wiki article.

cowdery

05-16-2008, 16:30

Of the two I had, one was straw-colored, the other was as clear as vodka. The straw-colored one was from Israel. The clear one was from Hungary. Both had a nice, mild, slightly fruity (and, yes, plummy) flavor, by far the best slivovitz I've ever had, against an admittedly small base.

Most slivovitz I've had tastes like grappa and most grappa I've had tastes like turpentine.

ThomasH

05-16-2008, 16:59

It is possible that the clear Slivovitz was filtered to remove the color. I know that Bacardi light rum is/used to be aged for 2 years and then filtered to remove all color!

Thomas

callmeox

05-17-2008, 17:03

All slivovitz that I've had was the same experience....a burning sensation :hot: followed much later by a fleeting taste of plums :skep: . Since it's a part of my Slovenian heritage, I endure it on special occasions.